Sounds and sights that stir feelings and memories: The pleasure of by Vitùc.

via This Is Colossal.

CLOUD is a large-scale interactive installation by Caitlind r.c. Brown for Nuit Blanche Calgary. Created from steel, metal pull-strings, and 5,000+ light bulbs (both illuminated and burnt out) CLOUD asks the viewer to participate by experiencing the work first hand – standing beneath the structure and pulling lights on and off, creating the flickering aesthetic of an electrical cloud.

via Laughing Squid.

Cloudy is a happy animated short by artists Samuel Borkson and Arturo Sandoval III of Friends With You. Welcome to the clouds! 

From IAmOther:

This animated short is an exploration into the clouds; a sweet, visual soundscape that takes the viewer through a personal journey into the sky. Sing, dance and relax as you follow a cast of clouds and raindrops through an entrancing adventure you’ll wish to take over and over again. 

FriendsWithYou explores animism, giving the main cast of characters a soul. The purpose of the piece is to transcend the viewer to a peaceful and joyous state. Clouds singing and performing their duties in a joyful manner show us that everything in our world has a role and a purpose. 

Both co-collectors were giggling pretty hard at this one. 

via Stellar.

A downward lightning negative ground flash captured at 7,207 images per second. A negative stepped leader emerges from the cloud and connects with the ground forming a return stroke.

From ZT Research, who is “trying to figure out how lightning works.”

via Stellar.

How does lightning form? Evidently we’re still trying to figure it out! It all starts in the clouds where both ice crystals and hail stones form: 

Scientists believe that as these hail stones fall back through the rising ice crystals, millions of tiny collisions occur. These collisions build up an electric charge which is stored in the cloud like a battery. ”A cloud is very much like a battery, but a battery with a much higher voltage than your typical flashlight battery… not 1.5 volts but 100 million volts.”

But what scientists don’t know is exactly how this electric charge generates lightning. “What remains a major meteorological mystery is how it is that ice particle collisions result in the generation of lightning. We’re very much in the middle ages on that problem.”

From the Discovery Channel’s “Raging Planet” series.